Seen from behind, a person in white climbs up a spiral staircase made of giant orange slices, step by step, as the juice squeezes out underfoot and the spiral rises through a bright sunny room full of plants. The same shot, now giant eggs that crack and pour golden yolk in a sunlit kitchen. The same again, giant pancakes that squish and leak warm syrup. This is the Surreal Staircase trend, the oddly satisfying climb up an impossible staircase made of one giant material, and the Surreal Staircase template ships the whole effect as one click on EmpirioLabs.
Surreal Staircase is a composition and a feeling, not a single scene. The low wide-angle floor camera that follows the climber from behind, the whole figure and the whole giant-material spiral both in frame, the bright sunny room, and the hyper-real finish that looks like real footage are all baked in. You just name the material and the room. Native ASMR footstep and material audio is generated with the clip, so it is ready to post with sound.
See the Surreal Staircase effect in action
How to generate Surreal Staircase videos on EmpirioLabs
You need an EmpirioLabs account with active credits.
Step 1: Open the playground
Sign in to platform.empiriolabs.ai, click Playground, and switch to a video model. Surreal Staircase recommends Happy Horse 1.1.
Step 2: Open the Templates picker
Click Templates. Filter by Viral or search for Surreal Staircase.
Step 3: Pick Surreal Staircase and name the material
Click the Surreal Staircase card. Describe the giant material the steps are made of and the bright space it fills, or tap one of the suggested chips: giant orange slices in a sunny atrium, giant eggs that crack in a kitchen, giant watermelon wedges, golden pancakes with syrup, cherry-blossom water orbs in a Japanese hall, jelly cubes, pastel macarons, or soft marshmallows. The white-clad climber seen from behind, the low wide-angle, and the bright photoreal look stay locked in.
Step 4: Generate
Hit Send. Generation typically takes 60 to 180 seconds, and the satisfying ASMR sound of footsteps and the material underfoot is generated with the video, so the clip is ready to post with sound.
Using the Surreal Staircase template via the API
curl https://api.empiriolabs.ai/v1/videos/generations \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $EMPIRIOLABS_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"template": "surreal-staircase", "prompt": "A spiral staircase of giant juicy orange slices in a bright sunny room full of plants"}'The template fills in the low wide-angle shot, the white-clad climber seen from behind, the giant material steps, and the hyper-real finish, so your prompt only needs the material and the room.
Pricing
Surreal Staircase recommends Happy Horse 1.1 and also supports Seedance 2.0 Pro, Seedance Fast, Seedance Mini, Wan 2.7, Wan 2.6, Kling O3, Kling 3.0 Turbo, Happy Horse 1.0, Pixverse, and MOSS Video and Audio. See per-model rates on the pricing page.
Try Surreal Staircase now
Browse all templates | Open the playground | Read the Generation Templates docs
